Protego Totalum
by timelessmoments
Summary: To protect yourself totally, you miss out on a lot. But sometimes you don't any any options left. When you're left with no other option, how do you bring those walls down? Can two broken people help each other live again? Or will they plummet into solitude and darkness?


_**DISCLAIMER;**_I do not own Harry Potter or anything in his world. I own Avery Le Feuvre and all her family - other than that I'm just playing God in J.K. Rowling's sandbox.

_**AUTHOR'S **__**NOTE; **_So this is kind of AU, being that Fred survives the final battle, and that because of this and the fact that all behavior immediately after the final battle isn't documented, this may not be exactly cannon either. I'll try not to stray to far from the original character behavior unless its needed or explainable. But it will happen a tad. Keep this in mind going into this story.

_**REVIEWS; **_I thrive off of reviews. I love them, they are my candy. That being said, I'll understand if you don't want to get me fat off of candy reviews...so while I hope you'll review, if you don't I understand.

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"Protego Totalum!"

The explosion was loud, loud enough to cause her eardrums to ring and her balance to wobble. Half the castle probably heard it, or at least that would've made sense considering the fact that all Avery could hear was a horrid ringing sound. She couldn't stand the ringing sound, literally. Falling to the floor she looked over to her left only to see Fred Weasley lying unconscious (she hoped he was only unconscious) beside her. She had seen the explosion before she heard it, although that wasn't overly impressive. Avery had very little left of her hearing after all the explosions happening around her. She was lucky to hear the explosion at all really, and the ringing in her ears? It was loud to her, but to someone with normal hearing it probably would've been unbearable. Fred Weasley was the last thing she saw for quite a while.

"Fred? Fred, no!" The first thing Fred saw was the blurred faces of Percy and George. He tried to open his eyes, but it felt like they were heavy, couldn't he just go back to sleep? They'd woken up him, yes they had to have. And before breakfast too, he would've been up for breakfast. He was always the first one up for breakfast. Had a nose for sausage he did, and eggs. Mmm, eggs. Maybe he had slept late?

"What? Is it time for break – AH!" Percy and George had both leapt onto him the moment he began to speak, but the choke hold of a hug was getting tighter and if they weren't careful they were going to kill Fred all by themselves. "Guys! Can't breathe! Air!" But neither brother seemed to be listening, neither did his mother who had now pushed the boys out of the way and was damn near smothering him. "Mum. AIR!" It seems they finally heard his cries for oxygen and released him, slightly. "What the hell you guys? I was just taking a nap!"

"A nap? A nap!?" He recognized that tone, Molly was about to yell at him. Then, it just suddenly died on her lips, like someone had defeated her, or taken all the air out of a balloon. "Oh, Fred!" She was back to squeezing him, at least this time he could still breathe.

"Mum, not that I don't appreciate the love, since I know I'm your favourite, but what the hell?" It was then that he looked around and the last few hours came flooding back to him in a vivid recollection. But the memories while vivid, were somehow distant and muted of sound, just black and white. Until he heard the scream in his head of someone yelling a powerful protection charm at him. "I…there was an explosion wasn't there?" Percy's head nodded, he had been the closest. That was right, they were fighting. So why wasn't he dead? Who had cast that spell? Percy had never been good at protection charms. "Percy, was it you?"

"No, it was her." Pointing to his right, Fred turned his head to look only to see Madame Pomfrey working furiously over the prone body of a woman. Her ears were bleeding and she looked like she'd been in an explosion. Considering he was alive, she probably had been. She looked familiar to him somehow. They had never taken a class together, so where had he seen her?

"Isn't that Avery?" George was the one to get it, leave it to George to figure these things out.

"Oh yeah, she was the only one to get better scores in Arithmancy then you Percy. Gee, I hope she's okay." Now the entire Weasley family was watching as Madame Pomfrey tried to mend the broken woman. Avery looked battered and worse for the wear. Her black hair looked grey from all the dust in it, her normally golden skin tone looked pale and slightly blue, and there was a large gash over left eye. That was just what they could see.

Professor McGonagall had come over only moments ago to try and help Madame Pomfrey. Without any warning whatsoever, Avery shot straight up on her cot, eyes wild as she yelled out "Protego Totalum! Protego Totalum!" She continued to yell it over and over, despite Madame Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall's best efforts to calm her. They hadn't realized she'd still been holding her wand, so it was perhaps a lucky occurrence that she was casting a protection spell over and over. Molly was the one to finally calm her down. Rushing to Avery's side, she grabbed her wand arm and forcibly lowered it, looking at Avery, trying to catch her gaze.

"Avery, Avery…Avery, dear. It's okay, it's okay. You saved him. You saved my Fred. Shhh dear, shhh." Avery was still looking wildly around, frantically almost before she caught sight of Fred. At least she had now stopped casting the spell.

"Fred…? You're okay?" Fred nodded slowly, careful not to move too much since waking up had triggered a migraine. "Good. Good. Imogen never would've forgiven me if I had let you die. I couldn't let you die…" With that she passed out again, allowing Madame Pomfrey to begin her work again. Fred only caught bits and pieces of what was being said, but he knew that Avery was going to have that scar over her eye, and that she probably wouldn't have much feeling in her left side for the rest of her life. Assuming she lived through the night, they would need to win the battle so Avery could be taken to St. Mungo's if she was going to live.

That was the last thing that Fred heard, and he hoped that beyond all hope the girl that had saved his life would live.

It was three weeks after the final battle that Fred was finally starting to feel like himself again. He'd even begun to make the occasional joke that Harry was out of a job since he was now the Boy-who-lived! Everyone laughed, not because it was particularly funny, but more because it was good to hear him joking again. George rarely left his brother's side, Percy as well. George had nearly lost his twin, his other half and he couldn't imagine ever letting it happen again. Percy, well he was mad at himself for ever letting something as stupid as work get between him and his family. He'd made a vow never to let it happen again.

"Has anyone heard any news about Avery?" She'd been taken to St. Mungo's, and had survived, but she had fallen into a coma. One which there seemed to be no magical way to save her from. There was no-one to contact. Her mother had died giving birth to her and her twin sister, her father drank himself to death just after the girl's graduated and no one knew anything about Imogen or where she was, or why she hadn't been to see her twin in the hospital.

Neither Fred nor George could fathom abandoning their other half like that. "No dear, I'm sorry. Nothing new." At the crestfallen look on Fred's face, Molly sighed. "Perhaps we should go visit her?" That seemed to brighten Fred up a tad. It took some convincing from Molly, but the matriarchal Weasley finally managed to get George and Percy to agree to stay home, to give Fred some time on his own.

"It'll probably do him some good, we'll be at St. Mungo's, and I'll be with him." She didn't need to say it, but it was very clear. Just as she had defended Ginny from that bitch Bellatrix, it would take an army of Voldemort (who was thankfully dead!) to get between the woman and the son she had almost lost. It was a short floo ride from the Burrow to the lobby of St. Mungo's.

Once they got to the fourth floor, it only took them a few minutes to find out which room Avery was in. Due to the fact that her coma had become persistent and she wasn't waking up, she'd been moved to the long-term residents' ward. "Mum, do you mind if I go in alone? There are some things I'd like to say to Avery, in private." Molly only nodded, instead heading to the other side of the large common area for the residents to visit with Alice Longbottom. They had been great friends, and even though Alice had no memory or knowledge of even who Molly was, she did still visit when she could.

Out of habit and respect, Fred knocked on the door only to be surprised when a soft voice from within told him to enter. Avery was laying on the bed, eyes open, staring at the ceiling. It appeared, she had woken up from her coma and only very recently. "Avery?" Fred moved closer to the side of her bed, careful not to disturb or scare her. He'd been warned by the very large and slightly intimidating nurse on their way in, not to make any trouble. "Avery? You awake?"

"I'm awake…or I'm in hell." Her tone was dry and humorless but it still managed to get Fred to smile, however slightly.

"I'd say hell. You're in the long-term residents' ward at St. Mungo's." She turned her head to look at him, the entire motion seemed strained and harsh. Most likely due to the fact that she hadn't moved or changed positions in three weeks. She looked confused, and before she could speak Fred explained. "You saved me from an explosion during the battle at Hogwarts," Somehow it still seemed too early to say 'final battle'. He was still half-expecting Voldemort to show up again, he always had before. "You saved me, but you didn't cast a spell around yourself…you, well you blew up for lack of a better word."

"I save your life and all you can say to me is 'you blew up'? Good thing I'm not dead. What kind of a eulogy would you be giving? Blew up! Pfft." Fred couldn't help but laugh along with her, although her laugh was more of a hoarse cough than anything. "Help me sit up please? I'm dying for some water."

Fred gladly obliged, helping her sip the water. "Well after you blew up, Madame Pomfrey tried to fix you, and you kind of freaked. You sat up and started screaming a protection spell…and then you said something about Imogen and how you had to save me because of her. Then you passed out again."

"How long?" She was staring into the cup of water, glad that she couldn't see her own reflection in it, she had to look a fright. When he didn't answer she turned to look at him. "How long Fred? How long have I been…?" When he still didn't answer, he wasn't sure he should be the one telling her – wasn't that what healers were for? – She began to cry a little. "Fred, please. How long?"

"Almost a month." He was staring at his hands, he couldn't look at her just yet. They sat in silence for probably ten minutes before he finally looked at her again. Her cheeks were streaked with tears, although they had stopped now, and she looked defeated. "Avery, I-I wanted to know, why is Imogen the reason you saved me?"

"George too." Putting her cup down on the table beside her bed, she sat herself up a bit more.

"George?" How was George involved?

"Yes…Imogen," Her voice cracked and the tears started fresh again. "Imogen is, was…is my twin sister. I just, I couldn't…she, and I couldn't…" What had started off as coherent speech quickly turned to a blubbering, crying mess of words that made no sense. She wasn't even looking at Fred anymore, she was looking at her hands as they flailed uselessly in her lap as she continued to cry. Her voice growing louder slowly until she was loud enough that one of the Healers in training heard her and came in. "I couldn't, and she couldn't….she shouldn't have, but she did, and now I'm…and she's…she is my sister. She's my twin…she is. SHE IS!" Her words devolved even more when she spotted the healer.

"Miss Le Feuvre, you need to calm down. You need to calm down. Sir, I need you to leave the room." Truth be told, Avery had quickly gone from just being sad and defeated to broken, to downright frightening. He hadn't meant to do that to her, he just wanted to thank her, and find out why she had saved him and not herself. He still needed to know why. She was too far gone into the world she was quickly spiralling down to answer him though. Clearly.

His mother met him outside the room, a worried look on her face. "Fred? Dear what happened?" He didn't say anything at first, he just started to walk. He felt guilty, he needed to get out of there. It wasn't until they were in the lobby that he finally spoke. "She woke up, and she's was okay until I told her how long she had been unconscious, then she started to cry." The once happy man had broken when he nearly died, and he had become a much quieter person. He was almost somber as he spoke.

"Mum, I think her sister, her twin Imogen…I think she's…"

"What Fred?" Molly watched her son, and if possible it appeared that he aged by about ten years. As if he was imagining a world ten years in the future. He looked so far away, so still, so cold, so lost. Had he not been speaking a moment earlier Molly might have thought him a living statue.

"Dead."


End file.
